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Analysis: Obama calm and cautious in remarks on attack

In a statement to the American people, President Obama said that his heart goes out to the victims of the Boston Marathon bombings and that the FBI is now investigating the bombing as an act of terror.
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Aamer Madhani, USA TODAY
12:42 a.m. EDT April 17, 2013

President Obama speaks at the White House on Tuesday.(Photo: Susan Walsh, AP)

Story Highlights

Obama has been updated by FBI director, counterterrorism adviser

Explains authorities are still struggling to figure out the who and why

WASHINGTON — Regardless of who is behind the twin blasts that shook Boston, President Obama now finds himself grappling with the fallout of a terror attack on U.S. soil under his watch.

In recent years, Obama has dealt with an al-Qaeda-inspired U.S. soldier gunning down 13 of his comrades at a U.S. military installation in Texas, and there have been near misses, including a failed attempt by a Pakistani-American man to blow up a car bomb in Times Square and a foiled attempt to take down a Detroit-bound airplane by a young Nigerian man who hid explosives in his underwear.

But in the more than 11 years since the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, the United States has managed, through stepped-up surveillance by the national security apparatus — and no small amount of luck — to avoid a spectacular attack on civilians like the one that hit the Boston Marathon, one of America's oldest and most iconic sporting events.

In his initial response to the bombings, Obama has chosen to offer calm, vowed justice for the perpetrators and requested patience from the public as law enforcement authorities hunt for the individuals or groups responsible for the attack.

The president on Tuesday also quietly suggested that in the hours since the bombings, authorities were still struggling to figure out the who and why behind the attack.

"What we don't yet know is who carried out this attack or why," Obama acknowledged. "Whether it was planned and executed by a terrorist organization — foreign or domestic — or was the act of a malevolent individual. That is what we don't yet know."

Later on Tuesday, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said there were no indications suggesting the bombings "are indicative of a broader plot."

Obama avoided the use of the word "terrorism" to describe the incident in his first comments hours after the bombings, even as White House officials were quick to call it "an act of terror." But on Tuesday morning he noted that investigators were pursuing it as an "act of terrorism."

On Tuesday, aides and allies of Obama emphasized the president's engagement and defended his cautious approach.

Overnight, Obama received updates on the investigation from White House counterterrorism adviser Lisa Monaco. The president received another round of briefings from Monaco, FBI Director Robert Mueller and other senior members of his team later Tuesday morning, and Vice President Biden in an appearance on Capitol Hill on Tuesday afternoon promised the administration "will find out who did it and bring them to justice."

Obama, who will travel to Boston on Thursday to attend an interfaith service for the bombing victims, made clear to aides that he expected to be kept up to date on developments and directed his team to make sure that all federal resources were available for authorities on the ground in Boston.

"The president is actively involved here in responding," said Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass.

Obama is clearly cognizant of the expectations that the president faces in a moment of such crisis, and the criticism his predecessor, George W. Bush, faced for his actions in the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 attacks.

President Obama is given an update on Tuesday in the Oval Office on the aftermath of the Boston Marathon bombings.(Photo: Pete Souza, The White House)

Bush was visiting a Florida classroom at the time of the attack on the World Trade Center and famously continued to read from a children's book after learning from an aide of the unfolding event. Bush said in a 2011 interview with National Geographic that he didn't want to rattle the children, but he also "wanted to project a sense of calm" to Americans he knew would later see images of his initial reactions.

"There's this tension between getting the president out there to play that role and the need to go out there and gather facts," former White House senior adviser David Axelrod explained on MSNBC on Tuesday morning. "In this case, the facts are slow to come."

At the same time, Obama wanted to reassure the American people and Bostonians that, as he put it on Monday: "We'll get to the bottom of this."

On Tuesday, Obama leveled with Americans that "clearly we're at the beginning of our investigation."

"It will take time to follow every lead and determine what happened," Obama said. "But we will find out. We will find whoever harmed our citizens, and we will bring them to justice."

Axelrod, who has been one of the president's closest advisers for many years, suggested Obama's measured response is reflective of his awareness that what he says will have reverberations around the globe.

"I'm sure what was going through the president's mind was 'We really don't know who did this,' " Axelrod said. "You just don't know, and so I think his attitude is, let's not put any inference into this. Let's just make clear we're going to get the people responsible."